The current state of mineral law and policies related to mining non-fuel minerals, and public attitudes towards mining are substantially different in Canada and the United States. Yet from an historical perspective, these two countries started out with the same laws respecting mining and mineral rights. The obvious questions are how did the systems diverge, why, and what are the implications? The key observations are that US mineral law and policies have been developed in a much less ordered process than those in Canada. In the United States, this process has yielded some useful adaptations of basic British common law such as ownership of minerals in fee simple title. The Canadian approach to policy, however, produces more intergovernmental collaboration and decentralization on matters such as environmental regulation.

With Canadian governments having returned to deficit-financed spending, the growth in direct government debt has re-emerged as a serious public policy issue in Canada. The net direct debt of all three levels of government increased from $872.2 billion to $1.2 trillion between 2007/08 and 2011/12. Apart from direct debt, government indebtedness also includes debt guarantees, contingent liabilities and contractual commitments, and unfunded program obligations. When liabilities other than direct debt are included, the total liability of Canadian governments (federal, provincial, and local) increases dramatically—to $4.1 trillion in 2011/12, up 20.9 percent from 2007/08. That $4.1 trillion translates into $117,948 for every Canadian citizen, $243,476 for each income taxpayer, or 230.2 percent of GDP.

Richard Burkhauser, the Sarah Gibson Blanding Professor of Policy Analysis at Cornell University, along with co-authors Jeff Larrimore and Kosali Simon, has been awarded the 2013 Addington Prize for Measurement presented by the Fraser Institute, an independent, non-partisan Canadian public policy think-tank..

Fewer Canadians are donating to registered charities, and they are giving less, according to a new study released today by the Fraser Institute, an independent, non-partisan Canadian public policy think-tank.